Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 8 verses 5 through 7:
5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible distress.’ 7And he said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’
Jesus healed the servant of a centurion. He also healed the son of a royal official.
These acts must have garnered Jesus suspicion amongst his followers. He was willing to be kind and compassionate towards the occupiers. He treated the gentile dogs with humanity. Didn't he know that this kindness would never break the backs of the occupiers? Didn't he know that they were at war? Didn't he want to see his own people go free?
Jesus did not see the world in the same "us versus them" terms. He had compassion on all. He would have compassion on all. He would have compassion on the suspected-criminal in the streets; and he would have compassion on the officer doing what he's been taught to try to clean them up.
Who is guilty? Who is right? Whose life matters? Whose life is collateral? Whose is expendable?
Jesus acts. Jesus saves. One is healed.
Maybe the whole world also . . .
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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